Garage Kids
by SeeMeInTheShadows
Summary: For a virtual world, Xanadu casts a dark and dangerous shadow. But throw in a mad professor, a group of runaways with a secret, and an ally with an ulterior motive and everything becomes just a little more deadly.


Summary: For a virtual world, Xanadu casts a dark and dangerous shadow. But throw in a mad professor, a group of runaways with a secret, and an ally with an ulterior motive and everything becomes just a little more deadly.

A/N: This fic will not be updated for…a pretty long time, but this first chapter can function as a pseudo-oneshot until that time comes (I wrote this chapter over a year ago, which is why the style is a bit different than my recent). This is planned to be 26 "episodes." Each "episode" will be about as long as this one (maybe a little less so). I must warn you, however. Garage Kids is not Code Lyoko and Xanadu isn't a prettier version of Lyoko. I am going to change the characters a bit: they may have powers they do not have in the series, I will take them more seriously here. Xanadu is much more threatening place. Thanks for _Soul Jelly_ who incredibly encouraging during this writing process, as well as all the usual suspects I thank. Again, the next update will take a while (think in terms of months). Also, I know that many a Garage Kids fic have been done, but I want to leave my mark, of a sort. Please feel free to review!

Warnings: Violence, possibly mature topics mentioned/alluded to, my writing from a year ago

* * *

_This is the story of a world called Xanadu and a boy named Odd Della Robbia._

Odd felt the rush of air, heard the roar of the wind, and saw the blinding light before there was absolutely nothing. The nothingness lasted for just a split second, and before he knew it, he could tell through his closed eyes that there was light again- though not blinding- and a soft breeze. His hearing took a little bit more time to regain, but he could hear the small wind and a weird, but vague, flapping sound.

He needed to open his eyes, so he counted down in his head. _Five, four, three, two, one._ As soon as he hit one, he forced his eyes apart and the sight that greeted him meant it would be longer than usual before he blinked.

He was standing on a dark stretch of flat land, at least he thought he was until he ventured over to where the land dropped off. All around him he saw bright green grass, clear blue streams, and trees ranging from dark to light green, some not even green yet. The rocks were tall and the air was cool and crisp, like an autumn day. The sun was warm, though, and hit everything, bringing out what had to be the best shade it could ever be. The only thing that seemed off was the dark shadows orbiting the tower (for what else could it be?) they were on.

And that's when he noticed he was also different. Instead of his purple hoodie and pants, he seemed to be wearing an equally purple jumpsuit. Though it was a dark purple, almost black. Except it wasn't, for it covered his entire body and included his boots and almost all the way up his neck. Where before he had hands, now he had paws. He held them up close to examine them. They were larger than his hands, but not too large. They felt natural.

On his purple jumpsuit, there were stripes that were black and he turned around to see that he had a tail that was equally as dark purple and black. He had the sudden desire to be on his hands and feet, or paws and feet, eat fish, and chase a string. He reached up to touch his ears, only to find they were not there. A few inches away, he felt them, only they were the feline version and a quick touch of the area by his nose revealed he had whiskers.

He was a cat. Actually, he was closer to a tiger, he realized, as the thought of chasing string quickly dissipated. He turned to Yumi in wonder of what she thought of his sudden transformation, when instead of a black-haired pseudo-goth he had grown to know (or at least be acquainted with), he saw a geisha. She smiled at him. "Looking good, Odd."

He walked over to her who had been standing at the spot in the center where they had virtualized, but not before taking one more glance at the world, in his more-than-probable improved cat vision.

"It's…it's amazing!" Odd gasped.

"Yes," Yumi said with a small smile. "Welcome to Xanadu."

Odd took a big sniff of the air and spread out his arms. "What do we have to do? Ulrich was in trouble, wasn't he?"

Yumi nodded. "Did you see any black forms that were almost transparent?"

Odd nodded. "They're right below us, circling the tower. Why? What are they?"

"They're trouble, that's what they are," Yumi explained. "We don't know what they are, but when they damage this place, they also damage Earth. Remember: in the factory?"

Odd nodded. "So what are we supposed to do? Beat them? Because I'll show them a beating they won't likely forgot, Odd style!"

Yumi laughed and shook her head. "You can destroy them, but that only means more will come back. It's the towers that we are after. Jérémie is trying to find out what they are, but it's harder than usual. Xanadu doesn't give up information easily."

"And it's dangerous too, isn't it?" Odd asked. "That's what you told me. So, do those black things hurt you or something?"

Yumi nodded. "Try not to get hit by one. Here's what we have to do. The towers hold power. We have no use for it, but if too many of the GHOSTS take control of too many towers, it can be bad. The more towers they control, the more what they do here affects the real world. It takes them a long time too. What they're doing below us is not only circling around, but protecting the tower from us and also using up its energy."

"How are they doing that?" Odd asked, scratching his head. "They're just going in circles."

Yumi sighed and took out one of her fans. She raised it up to above her head, and then with a shout she quickly brought it down, intending to impale it in the top of the tower. Unfortunately, her plan backfired. Instead of digging into the tower, a sudden burst of dark blue light reacted shown about a foot off the tower. The fan, and Yumi's hand, were forced back and flung up. Yumi, who seemed to be expecting it, jumped up as her hand was shocked back, but her arm was still pushed back.

"The tower has a force field," she said as she patted her hair back in place. "It protects the tower. Humans aren't affected by it, as long as we walk slowly with no obvious intention of violence towards it, but it doesn't react as well towards the GHOSTs. Even when we attack, it's a bit kinder towards us though. There are three force fields around the outside: the one I just showed you, one that is right on top of the tower itself, and one that is five to ten feet away."

"So what do the GHOSTs around the outside have to do with that?" Odd asked.

"Well, the GHOSTS are powerful enough to get inside the outer force field, but not the other two. But they use up the energy when they are inside the force field because the tower is constantly trying to get them out."

"Which means that soon enough all three force fields won't work," Odd said. "I see, but that doesn't explain why we are here."

Yumi started playing with her fans. "Because we can get inside the tower. There are controls: we can control the tower, which uses up a lot of power and means it's easier to take, or we can close it off, so no one can get inside it for a while."

"Which means no GHOSTs," Odd said.

"Exactly," Yumi said, "and we've wasted too much time as it is. Now that you've gotten Xanadu 101, we need to go help Ulrich. One of us has to get in the tower and now that you are here, it means we can have two distractions instead of one."

"How many of the towers do we have to close?" Odd asked.

"Sometimes we have to take all of them," Yumi said, "but most of the time we can close all of the towers in the first one, they have a shut-off-all switch. However the GHOSTs have either already taken a tower or have almost taken one. And Ulrich really needs our help. Now."

Odd smiled and set for the edge, but Yumi was still standing, rooted to the spot. "I don't like heights that much." Odd saw a faint blush on her cheeks and a shake to her hand but her legs stayed still.

"Plus, there's no way for us to get down," Yumi pointed out. "We're at the top of the tower, how does Jérémie expect us to be of any help up here?"

"Does he know where the towers are?" Odd asked.

"He knows the general area," Yumi said, "but Xanadu changes a little each time and the towers always change a little. But it's not too hard to see where they are. It can be for Jérémie though."

Odd nodded. "You know," he said, "I think I may have a way to get off of this tower."

"How?" she asked.

He showed her his claws on his 'hands' and his paws on his feet, which weren't quite boots but weren't quite real paws either. However, they had the claws that he needed.

"Oh no," Yumi said, "you don't know that you can for sure- this is your first time on Xanadu!"

"Trust me," Odd said. "I can do this."

"But that does not even come close to solving how I'll get down there," Yumi pointed out.

"You trusted me enough to tell me your biggest secret," Odd pointed out. Then, he bent down so he was on all four of his paws and nodded to his back. "Hop on."

"We had no choice but to tell! You saw me save Jérémie!"

"You have no choice here, either. We've got to get to Ulrich and if we don't then I know I don't know what will happen and I'm pretty sure you don't know what would happen on the real world. But we both know it would be bad, yes? So you need to trust me enough to get a ride."

Yumi couldn't argue with that, so she walked over and climbed on to his back. She wrapped her legs around his waist and arms around his chest. Her head was on top of his shoulder and he could feel her breath. She grabbed him tightly; and her eyes and teeth were clenched. He couldn't let her down- not after he had spent so much time trying to convince her otherwise."

He didn't know the rules of this world. He didn't know what would happen if he died. Jérémie had told him it was dangerous, but Odd didn't know if that meant falling off a hundred foot tower would result in injury in the real world or something more sinister.

But it was no time for doubts. He sprinted off on all four paws towards the edge of the tower. He could feel Yumi on him, and she was practically strangling him with how hard she was holding on, but he didn't care. He could feel her weight, but it didn't slow him down- he was going faster than he had in his entire life.

When he neared the edge, he wasn't sure how he should actually go through with the descent. The confidence he had when talking to Yumi had all but evaporated leaving him with nothing but fear. And then he didn't have time to think and he was flying through the air.

For an exhilarating moment, all he could feel was the sensation of flying, and then he was falling. And falling. And falling.

Yumi started to scream, and he started to scream. But then a part of his brain took control. Somehow he managed to turn so that his legs were falling first and he was still facing the tower. He reached out with his claws and reached out, coming in contact with the tower. So he grabbed on. He could feel himself slowing, and squinted his eyes open so he could see the scratch marks he was forming.

Yumi stopped screaming but held on tighter, her hands falling against his neck, making it hard for him to breath. They skidded to a complete stop, still about sixty feet above ground. Yumi opened her eyes and looked down and the pressure on his neck increased even more so.

"This was your plan, Odd?" she shouted at him.

Odd gritted his teeth together. "Don't worry Yumi," he said, "we're not yet dead."

"We will be soon if you don't get us to ground this second!" she shouted. "And you'll be dead whether we get on ground or not! I promise you, Odd Della Robbia, I will kill you if it's the last thing I do."

Odd shuddered and pondered what to do. He was still too high to jump down- and even if he could manage it, he doubted that Yumi could. She was muttering another her breath and they were both sweating.

Odd's stomach dropped. If Yumi started to sweat and her hands got loose…he didn't want to think of the repercussions. He might have been able to fall at this distance but she would most certainly die.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a few of the GHOSTs start to take notice and come towards him. He knew that an attempt to fall would be bad, but those GHOSTs were the worst case scenario, and if they trapped him then falling would be the least of his problems.

So he took a gamble and let go while pushing off of the wall. Yumi started screaming again but he remained focus with his eyes clenched in concentration. He saw as the smooth surface of the tower passed by in blurs. When he deemed enough time had passed for them to be close enough to the bottom, he quickly reached in.

But instead of making contact with the wall, his sudden movements and claws had brought up the force field. A blinding purple glow showed it where it was supposed to be, a few feet from the tower. He was pushed back, barely within reach of the wall. He strained and strained to get to the wall (slower and gentler), and finally made contact. His front claws grabbed it before he used his back paws to act as a break.

It hurt and burned; his fronts paws were sore around the claws and the entirety of his black claws stung- like a carpet burn from hell, but he stayed on. He looked down. They were only about twenty feet off the ground now, and the GHOSTs had seemed to think he was falling to his death and remained circling. It would take them little time to realize that he was not dead, but he had to move fast.

Twenty feet was high, but not too high. Not for him anymore. A part of his brain was the cat he had become and he smirked as he pushed off from the wall. Yumi didn't scream this time, instead her tight gripped loosened just a fraction, still tight but not choking.

He felt his paws hit the ground but the shock didn't seem as…shocking as he had thought it would be. He smiled as Yumi opened her eyes and numbly climbed off.

"See Yumi, that wasn't so bad."

She punched him in the arm and he had to admit that it had hurt. Really badly, actually. "Never again, Della Robbia!"

He smiled and rubbed his arm. "We should find Ulrich," he said. It had been about ten minutes since they had virtualized, and Odd couldn't believe how quickly he was getting the hang of this Xanadu thing.

Yumi nodded and they took off running towards the trees in the distance. Luckily, none of the GHOSTs seemed to be following them. When they were safely concealed in the trees, Odd turned to Yumi.

"If you could lift Jérémie up earlier this day, then why couldn't you lift yourself up and bring yourself down from the tower?"

Yumi looked down. "It requires a lot of energy, not to mention almost total concentration. And believe me, my concentration goes out the window more than ten feet above ground. If it had come to it, I might have been able to do it, but the chance I could have gotten us both down to the bottom of the tower in one piece isn't likely."

Odd nodded. "So what do we do now? Do we go after them or do we wait for Ulrich?"

Yumi sat down. "We wait for Ulrich and if he isn't here in more than a few minutes we do our jobs."

Odd sat down next to her and smiled. "Do you all have powers like that?"

Yumi smiled back and slowly levitated a rock that she caught with one hand. "I think so. I have one, obviously, and Ulrich has one. So I guess we all have one."

"Ulrich has one," Odd repeated eagerly. "What is it?"

Just then, a blur shot past the two. It circled them and Odd could hardly track it, even with his cat eyes. The blur came to an abrupt stop and suddenly Ulrich was standing there. He smirked at Odd and tilted his head, like he was challenging the other boy.

"Ulrich's got super speed," Yumi said after she brushed the hair out of her eyes and went to stand by the two boys. She smiled at Ulrich. "Glad you made it to the party."

Odd, however, was preoccupied with Ulrich's pants. He walked around in a circle, examining the puffy monstrosities and couldn't help but laugh. "Where did you get these things? They're huge!"

Ulrich grumbled and Yumi held back a laugh. Ulrich had gotten used to his pants by now, but they were still a bit of a sensitive spot for him, probably the only sensitive spot he even had. She didn't want her two friends fighting, though, when they had a world to save, so she looked to the sky. "So Jérémie, what's the situation?"

Suddenly, a loud voice that could only be Jérémie filled the sky. "Not good. The GHOSTs have taken one tower last night and have finished one more since then. They're almost done with their third one."

Yumi and Ulrich nodded while Odd just looked a little out of place. "We should lock down the ones they haven't gotten yet," Yumi said. "Then we'll double back for the ones they have gotten."

The two boys agreed and Odd and Yumi followed Ulrich's lead as he ran normally, but still quite fast in the direction of the other towers. When they came to a tower, Odd looked around. The tower was on a sloping hill with grass that blew gently in the wind. He could see that tower that they had landed on and a forest past that that he had never bothered to notice. Here though, it was just grassy with outcroppings of rocks, like the one they were hiding behind. There were also about three GHOSTs circling around the tower.

"That's more for defense than anything," Yumi said. "It would take days for three of them to drain the energy of the force field." She turned to Ulrich. "Should we try this one or see if another one isn't being guarded."

Ulrich shook his head. "Too risky," he said. Odd stared at him for a bit because this was only the second or third time he had heard the other boy speak.

Jérémie's voice filled the sky again. "Ulrich's probably right. Who knows what you'll meet when you get to the other towers. The GHOSTs must have done something to my computer: I can hardly see where any of them are!"

"Okay," Yumi said. "There are three GHOSTs and three of us." She turned to Odd. "I hope they taught you math at your old school."

Odd smiled. "So Ulrich gets all of them and we sit and watch?"

"Something like that," Yumi consented.

Ulrich rolled his eyes at the two but smiled and lightly punched Odd's arm. Odd smiled and pointed to a GHOST flying above the other ones around the tower. "I'll get that one," he said. "But do we actually have to get all of them, or can we just run it?"

"You could just run in first," Yumi said, "it's just a really-"

"Bad idea," Ulrich prompted, cutting her off. Odd looked at him again, because at the rate Ulrich was speaking, he must have been breaking some type of record.

"They'll all come after you right away," Yumi said, "and remember, you can't enter the tower too fast or it won't even work. They'll be mad enough when we pass through the first force field, but at least that one isn't affected by speed for humans."

Odd nodded and kept an eye on the GHOST that he had chosen. It swooped up and down and almost looked sort of cute.

"On the count of three," Ulrich said. "One. Two. THREE."

The three sprinted off for the tower. Ulrich was the fasted, with his super sprint. Odd arrived second as he had instinctively raced on all four of his paws. He couldn't imagine any other way of running.

Yumi was the last, but what she lacked in speed, she made up as she threw one fan at the GHOST she had picked out for herself. The GHOST dodged the attack easily but didn't expect Yumi's fan to come back. It moved out of the way by sheer luck, allowing Yumi to catch her fan and throw both at the same time. She was fighting as she sprinted, and if Odd had gotten a good look at her while she did it, he would have respected and admired her even more.

Ulrich had been watching her, out of the corner of his eye, as he smiled and got the GHOST to follow him. His saber wasn't charged yet. Or if it was Jérémie had been keeping something from him. Right as he thought that, Jérémie's voice called out from the factory. "Ulrich, your saber is charged!"

Ulrich felt himself smile as he reached out and grabbed the hilt of his sword. He pulled out and saw the data that was somehow deadly to all on this world. Taking it out completely and holding it with a practiced ease, it was something to be feared, especially considering his knack of speeding up so fast that nothing could possibly keep up with him. But he was getting tired, and he knew that, so it would do him well to wait to use his ability when he really needed to.

Odd felt completely in his element. He saw the GHOST he was chasing, still high above the ground. Apparently it didn't think it needed to come and attack Odd.

"That's okay," Odd murmured to himself, "because I'll come and attack you." He knew that sprinting and trying to run up the wall would only result in getting thrown off, so he slowed down and reached the wall slowly. Before the other ghosts could attack, he jumped up and felt his paws hit the wall.

As soon as that happened, he started running as fast as he could. In the first moments, it had been risky, and he had felt himself starting to fall, but as soon as he gained momentum, there was nothing that could break his pace, especially seeing as his GHOST had still had not seen it fit to attack Odd.

When Odd was about ten feet above where he knew where the GHOST would be if it continued its leisurely circling, he pushed himself off of the tower and did a back flip in the air. It was perfect, and he fell right on his GHOST.

"You've been a bad GHOST, Claire," Odd said to it. "Though I guess you're not really a GHOST, because you're not very ghostlike." Claire didn't like the tone he was talking in.

The GHOST tried its hardest to shake him off, but Odd held on tightly, though he was getting a little sick.

As the GHOST began flying randomly, twisting and turning, trying to buck the boy off, Odd noticed that they were only about thirty feet off the ground. He could land from that height, no problem. Hadn't he done twenty just a few minutes ago? And that was with Yumi weighing him down.

So he figured it would be the perfect time to get rid of the GHOST. Of course, a flaw in the plan would be that, while Yumi and fans and Ulrich had a sword, Odd didn't have anything particularly violent.

Except his claws.

He took a moment to look at one. They were sharp, that was for sure, and they had already saved his life today. But how good would they be at killing a GHOST. Even if the GHOST wasn't really a ghost, he doubted a few scratch marks would hurt it very much in the long run.

He stared and focused on his claws, and then, right before his eyes, they started to change. They grew out so they were a bit longer and a bit sharper than they had been just a few seconds ago. Long enough that they wouldn't just scratch now- they could do some serious damage.

If hadn't been holding for dear life, he would have shrugged. This was it then. He got some claws that changed and he hoped that that wasn't all he was going to get, because Ulrich got a sword and speed and Yumi got deceptively dangerous fans and telekinesis. He got a tail and sharp finger nails.

His arms and legs were wrapped around the GHOST, holding on as it spun and wove. He wondered if this was what Yumi had felt like when he had jumped off the other tower, but figured it had to have been different because he had been trying to make her stay on as easily as possible while this thing was trying to make it as difficult as it could.

He repositioned his hands and then with all the force he shoved them inward to the GHOST. The GHOST didn't seem to have a part, so it was mostly ineffective, but then Odd kept his claws in the wound and gambled.

He quickly pulled them out to the side, giving up his ability to stay on. The GHOST was split in half and dissipated and he was falling.

Ulrich and Yumi turned to watch him fall for a second, before quickly turning back to their fights but Odd saw as the ground got closer and closer.

He braced himself for the landing and let the instincts he had take over. Before he knew it, he was on the ground and sprinting to help the other two. But, by the time he arrived there, they were both done and wiping their hands off.

"So now we go into the tower?" Odd asked.

Ulrich nodded and the three started for the tower. But at that moment, a swarm of GHOSTs appeared from almost out of nowhere. There were too many to count and they started circling the tower as some of them formed three small groups to go after the three humans.

"They came out of nowhere!" Jérémie said overhead. "I swear, they weren't even the ones at the other tower. It must have been a trap!"

"That's alright, we'll show these GHOSTs what we can do," Yumi said as she held out her two fans.

Ulrich took out his swords and looked at it. "Can you recharge it while I battle, Jérémie?"

"That shouldn't be a problem, Ulrich. Now go get them!"

Ulrich and Yumi didn't need a second telling, they were before Odd could wrap his head around the fact that about a billion of these things had appeared out of nowhere. He saw a group of about five GHOSTs that dived down, heading right for him.

He smiled. "And I thought one of you guys was bad enough." He jogged over to the tower and leapt up as he had done before. Then he started running up it so he was higher than every GHOST. A quick look over his shoulder told him his GHOSTs were still trailing him.

Abruptly, he came to a stop and felt himself fly onto the first GHOST. He extended his claws and dug them into the GHOST and across the sides. As the GHOST started to disappear, he jumped to the next one.

He repeated his motions, jumping from GHOST to GHOST and digging his claws into each one. They were a little slimy on the inside, and depending on the GHOST, the outside too.

He lost count of how many he had jumped on, because he figured the more GHOSTs gone the better. Finally, the GHOSTs smartened up and stopped flying where he could easily reach them. He was falling again but he wasn't as scared as he was the first time, or even the second time. He didn't bother to look at the ground where he would land, instead choosing to see how his teammates were doing and where the other GHOSTs were.

\Yumi was doing fantastic. She was throwing her fans and catching them without looking, only to throw it again with almost no effort at the next GHOST. When a GHOST came up to her before she had either of her fans, she would use the martial art that Odd had seen her practicing with Ulrich, but he had never caught the name. He would have to ask them about it later.

Ulrich was doing well too. His sword was flying so fast Odd couldn't see it. He had an intense gaze on his face as he concentrated fully on the task at hand. Odd saw as he destroyed GHOST after GHOST after GHOST. He was also incorporating the martial art, using it to confuse the GHOSTs and still doing some major damage.

Both of them had long since destroyed their first small group and no doubt others had come to take their place. He went over to stand between the two and soon enough, more appeared just for him. He did his trick with climbing up the tower, but the GHOSTs moved away from it, so he couldn't jump to them.

He hopped to the ground and waited as they swarmed around him, then, without thinking, he pounced on one of them with his claws extended. He tackled the GHOST to the ground and tore his claws down the long side of the GHOST. The GHOST disappeared and he hopped up on the other ones, doing a combination of the two tricks he had learned.

When he finished off with his small group, Ulrich came to stand beside him, sword out and blocking an incoming GHOST.

"Odd," he ordered, "listen to me. There're too many. Now, while you have the chance, get into the tower and close it down, along with the other open ones."

"I don't know how to," Odd protested.

"You'll figure out or you're a bigger idiot than I thought. Now GO!"

Odd didn't nod back but he casually jogged to the tower, like he was going to jump up as usual. He quickly looked at the GHOSTs. Most of them were high up, and if he went quickly, they wouldn't come to him at all.

He thought this just as he saw three GHOSTs break off from the group. Quickly, he turned to the tower and walked towards it.

The force field acted like thick water. It slowed his movements down and made both his body and his mind foggy. It took ten times the usual force to take a step, and it was a small step that barely got him an inch. Surely the GHOSTs would finish him off before he got in, if he ever got in, that was.

He felt the touch of the GHOST against the back of his neck. It was one of the slippery ones.

"Oh no," he said, but his words were muffled because of the force field. It hadn't have been like this when he jumped onto the tower walls, though he guessed it had something to do with the fact that he wanted to enter.

He took another step forward and suddenly the GHOST's grip diminished. He had made it completely inside the force field. But he knew there was one more that he had to get through.

It couldn't have been more than an inch, but it slowed down time remarkably well. Odd felt like he was inside it for at least a minute. He couldn't hear anything that was going on- the muffled sounds of the fight he had heard in the first force field were gone, leaving him with terrible silence.

He could barely bring himself to think. The only thing there was now was his knowledge that he _needed_. To get through. It left him with a horrible feeling of being so cold he was numb and full detachment.

It took him almost that entire minute to realize he wasn't breathing.

He tried to, but it didn't work. It filled him with panic and he had to get out of here right now! He had to get out he had to get out he had to get out!

But the faster he tried to go, the slower he did. He resigned himself to the fact that he was going to die in this force field and there was nothing he could do about it. He felt himself fall forward. It was funny, because he didn't even need to breath until he thought about breathing but now he needed it more than he had ever needed in his life.

He fell in slow motion, and then, all of a sudden, he was moving forward again. He crashed against the floor and it hurt, mostly, but he was still numb and detached and cold. He slowly picked himself up but stopped when his hands and knees were still on the floor and started gasping.

He could breathe now and he just couldn't get enough oxygen. He felt like he had been run over by a bulldozer and had a horrible strain of the flu and was on too many medications.

"Odd. Odd. Odd!"

He heard the voice and for the first time, looked around at the inside of the tower. The walls were made up entirely of screens. Most of them had random (or at least they sure looked random to him) numbers and letters, running up and down, but in one spot, he could see a small square section with Jérémie looking at him.

He stood up and walked over to the screen. The floor was made of stone and sounded hallow as he walked across it. "Hey Jérémie, how're you?"

Jérémie laughed and pushed his glasses up. The glare from the computer screens on them fascinated Odd and he couldn't help but staring at them.

Luckily for Odd, Jérémie was checking another computer screen and couldn't see him staring. Odd shook himself out of it and looked around. "So what am I supposed to do here?"

"You see that small circle right there?" Jérémie asked, motioning to the center of the floor.

Odd nodded. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Go stand there and you'll be taken to the actual section of the tower. "I can't help you there, I can barely hack into this part, and that part's filled with the major security systems. And I've never been on Xanadu, but from what Ulrich and Yumi have said, it isn't hard to figure out."

Odd nodded and stepped out to the center of the floor. Jérémie gave him an encouraging smile and then he was weightless.

He felt himself floating and it was a really, really nice feeling. He didn't dare try anything than to stay still, in case the weightlessness only extended a little bit and he was too suddenly plummet to the hard stone ground. He could fall without killing himself now, but that didn't mean he wanted to.

He looked down, and a little beneath his feet, a new layer of the tower was forming. He stayed still in the air, hovering about three feet above the newly formed floor. When the new floor was fully formed, he dropped and was so thrown off guard he actually landed on his back.

That was embarrassing. He did a quick look of the tower to make sure there was no Jérémie watching. There wasn't. He couldn't shake the feeling though that somewhere, someone was watching and laughing. A quick scan revealed the tower was still empty, but he just couldn't shake the feeling…

He still felt horrible from entering the tower, a job he fully intended to let Ulrich and Yumi handle from that point forward.

He walked to the center of the circular room. The material wasn't made of stone, but transparent code that made no sound as he walked across. He went to the center and a small, transparent screen appeared.

He didn't know what to do, so he stuck one claw out and touched it hesitatingly. At his touch, the screen sprang to life. There were several options listed on the right side, including: CLOSE TOWER, CLOSE ALL TOWERS, DEACTIVATE TOWER, ACTIVATE TOWER, and a few more things.

He tried hitting CLOSE ALL TOWERS, but his touch didn't do anything. He looked at the right side. On it, was a blank space. Words written at the top of the blank space simply said: PLACE HAND.

He figured that it was as good of an idea as any, so he set his paw down on it. It scanned the paw and the screen was a blank blue for a second before a different menu started showing up and read: ODD DELLA ROBBIA.

His name dissipated and in its place was the menu he had seen, still on the left side, and some more options on the right side. He carefully selected CLOSE ALL TOWERS and it asked for his identification, again.

He placed his paw down, the computer scanned it again, and before anything else could happen, he was falling. He crashed on his back, again, at the bottom of the tower. He got up, and tried to gather his thoughts, but he felt as if he was being forced out of the tower.

He took a step in one direction and found it was impossible to go to the center anymore. He followed the force and found himself out of the tower. As he left, it was easier to go to the force field, but the detached feeling came back full force.

Once he was out of the force field, he stood up quickly, feeling a bit light headed and looked around. All the GHOSTs had disappeared and Yumi and Ulrich were standing together talking.

When they heard him come out, they smiled and walked over to him.

They noticed the pale color of his face and Ulrich patted him on the back. "Don't worry, it gets better."

Yumi nodded. "Yeah, I remember my first time when I had to go into it, I felt awful."

"Did you guys beat all the GHOSTs?" Odd asked.

Ulrich shook his head. "They all left. There's no point in guarding a tower you can't get into, let alone trying to use up the force field."

"So what do we do now?" Odd asked. "Are we done?"

"No," Yumi and Ulrich said at the same time. They turned to each other and smiled at the same time as well.

"You closed down the towers right on time, Odd," Jérémie said. "The GHOSTs didn't get the chance to activate the other tower. But you still have two towers to deactivate and then close."

"We should split up," Ulrich said. "I'll take Odd to the tower at the far end and Yumi can get to the other tower. Which one is it?"

"The one at the other far end," Jérémie said.

"All the more reason to split up," Yumi reasoned, "because otherwise it would take us forever to get it done."

The three friends agreed to follow Ulrich's plan and Yumi gave them a wave as she set off for the tallest tower.

Ulrich looked at Odd appraisingly. "Let's see how fast you can go here."

With that, Ulrich took off in a sprint, but not a full one with all his power. Odd smiled at the competition and sprinted after Ulrich on all four limbs.

Odd looked both at Ulrich and the scenery as they passed through. Xanadu was a beautiful place. It had rolling hills and lush grass. When they went over the mountain, Odd's breath was even taken away and he stopped, looking at the huge forest.

"How is this even possible?" he asked.

Ulrich didn't seem to like stopping, but he did seem to understand Odd's fascination as he stopped a little ahead of Odd.

"It's a digital world, there's really nothing that's not possible. Ready to go again?" Odd nodded and the two started tearing through the jungle again. Ulrich navigated dangerous spots with the ease of much practice. Odd relied on the instincts of his form.

During these dangerous spots, Ulrich would hold back even more to make sure Odd was right beside him and didn't get into any trouble, so Odd decided to ask him about his form.

"Ulrich, since you're a samurai here, did you ever find that you were instinctively good at handling swords."

Ulrich kept his gaze ahead of him but nodded minutely. "Yeah, why, do you suddenly feel like a cat? I don't think there are any litter boxes on Xanadu."

Odd made a face that Ulrich couldn't see. "No, it's just that all this running and jumping, I'm better at it than I ever could have been, and I don't have to think about it one bit."

"That's normal. Xanadu changes you."

They continued on in silence until they reached the mountains and went over it. When they were at the top, Odd saw that they were by the edge of Xanadu.

"What do you do if you fall over?" he whispered to Ulrich and motioned to the raging, colored sea below them.

"We don't know."

There were more GHOSTs at the tower than Odd had ever seen in one place. "Before they were just protecting it," Ulrich said, "when I was here. Now even more are trying. We've got to get it deactivated before even more show up."

"Do you have a plan or do we have to fight them all?" Odd asked. "Because I could take them all, no problem! But I don't really want to."

Ulrich laughed. "I was thinking you could be a good distraction, Odd," he said. "Gather all of their attention."

"How should I do that?"

Ulrich stared at him. "Just be yourself."

"Ha ha, that's funny."

Ulrich shrugged. "Pretend to head straight into the tower, they'll chase you away. They don't have to know I'm here. Lead them away and find out how to get them all with you, or at least most of them. I'll head in when they're distracted."

"I don't like this plan, because I'm going to end up food for a hundred GHOSTs. Why shouldn't you be the distraction?"

Ulrich didn't reply, just motioned for Odd to go. Which he did.

Odd walked slowly towards to the tower. A few of the GHOSTs came after him, but not many. As he got closer and closer, more and more came. He bent down and scooped up some rocks. Normally, fighting GHOSTs off with rocks is not something that Odd would do, but he wasn't really fighting…just acting. And he could act fine.

He took his rocks and tossed them at all at assorted GHOSTs. The GHOSTs weren't mad, per se, but they weren't happy to have rocks thrown at them either. A good majority of them swarmed after Odd and he smiled, waving at them. When they got close enough to him, he leaped up on the tower and started climbing.

They GHOSTs all followed him. He climbed higher and higher until he was almost at the top. He noticed that more GHOSTs were following him than not and that Ulrich had not yet made his move.

He climbed to the very top of the tower and it was funny, he thought to himself, because on the top of the tower was how he had started off his adventure on Xanadu in the first place.

Now that he was this high up, he didn't really know how he planned on getting down. He could always jump, and while he was almost sure he would survive at this point, he didn't have a doubt that he would end up with some serious and painful injuries. In other words: not what he wanted.

He looked down and saw Ulrich slowly walking away from the trees that he had been concealed in.

_About time._

The GHOSTs were more organized than he thought, because they slowly circled him about ten feet above him. There were still a few guarding the tower, but if he wanted to make sure his and Ulrich's plan worked, he had to make sure none of the others noticed.

He had held some rocks in his mouth as he climbed and he threw them at some of the GHOSTs. The GHOSTs weren't affected, so Odd crouched down low and jumped as hard as he could. He didn't quite reach the GHOSTs, so he waited a little longer than until they came down, just low enough for him to reach him.

When they were low enough, he did the same thing, faster than he had originally done, throwing the GHOSTs off guard. He landed on top of one of them and destroyed it pretty simply, but then the others swarmed in.

He was on the top of the tower and standing upright and the GHOSTs were closing in on him. He was moving his arms in random directions, spinning around so that no part of the area around him was left uncovered for too long. He got a lot of GHOSTs with his claws, but not enough. There were just too many, and he knew that there was no way he could beat them all.

Ulrich had had plenty of time to seize the day and take the chance to get to the tower while Odd had the majority of the GHOSTs focused on him and only him. The opportunity had presented itself at least three times for the other boy to get in.

Odd saw a hole in the crowd of GHOSTs and he knew it was his only opportunity.

He took it.

He sprinted through the hole, feeling as tendril from the GHOSTs grabbed him, sometimes slimy at first, sometimes as rough as sandpaper, and left a burning sensation in their wake.

He made it through the GHOSTs and could sense them following him. He kept running until he was off the tower and felt as he was falling. This was going to really hurt.

He might have heard Jérémie's voice, but it was drowned out by the roaring in his ears as he dropped and knew he wouldn't be able to grab on to anything. It wasn't like the time with Yumi, when he could slow down with his claws, and if that failed, she would be there with her telekinesis to take them down gently.

It wasn't like back at the other tower, when he was hopping from GHOST to GHOST, never getting as high to where he knew he couldn't jump down relatively safely. Maybe a little worse for where, but nothing to inhibiting. He was farther off the ground now.

This was going to hurt.

The ground got nearer and nearer and then he felt something that he had never felt before. It wasn't the sensation of falling, because he had felt that enough times today for it to barely phase him. Not the feeling eminent death, because he had been in that situation before too. A kind of weightless, but not like he weighed nothing. That had been experienced today as well.

Like he _was _nothing.

His eyes closed involuntarily and when he opened them up, it was dark and he was in a small, circular room. Lights came on and he realized the room was yellow and slowly a door slid open. He was in the scanner, back on Earth.

He let his head come out and couldn't stop the gasps for breath. Even as he fell forward and hands gripped him, only one thought ran through his mind.

He couldn't wait to go back.


End file.
